The Rosebud Sioux Tribe is on a real estate tear in the Black Hills. After putting up $9 million to close on the 1,942-acre tract of the Pe'Sla grassland last week, the tribe dropped another $144,000 Tuesday to buy a 40-acre plot of high ground (6850 feet!) west of Deerfield Lake. The tribe's final bid in Tuesday's auction was $3,600 per acre, a thousand dollars less than what they paid per acre for Pe'Sla, but over a thousand dollars more than the last legitimate bid at the auction attempted in November.
Recall that the November auction was annulled when 21-year-old Matthew Astin of Hermosa claimed the 40-acre tract with a high bid of $2,550, then reneged because he thought that was the price for the entire plot, not the per-acre price. Thinking that one can get 40 acres of pristine Black Hills land for four figures demonstrates a serious disconnect from reality... not to mention an inability to listen to the auctioneer.
But Astin grew up in a family dedicated to disconnect from reality: his fundagelical brother David formed his own PAC to launch false right-wing attacks against various South Dakota politicans.
So here's the political irony of the week: a young white man of right-wingnut pedigree commits a serious blunder at auction and inadvertently helps along a cause of left-wing favor: the return of the Black Hills to the Lakota people.
ha! Karma baby, Karma! Thanks for filling us in on the "connection" of the a**hat that did that silly bidding on that land parcel. Very interesting indeed!
I don't believe in karma, but I'm happy to point out it out to those who do. :-)
Irony, karma, whatevs. Around our house we've taken a liking to saying 'good carmels.' Great story, Cory.
Once these properties close and transfer, will they be removed from the property tax rolls? If so, what's the current tax and estimated revenue loss to the counties and school districts?
Or the tribe could have shown up the first time and not paid $40,000 more than it's worth.
oops! yeah, I don't believe in it either...I should be more careful using that figure of speech.... bottom line - it is good news, that's for sure.
Thad, who's to say it's not worth that extra $40K? The first auction had different bidders. Astin's mistake brought attention to the sale. That attention brought forward buyers with a higher estimate of the land's value. How do we establish that the bidders at the first auction more accurately assessed that value than the bidders at the second?
It may be worth noting that the bids went higher in part because of out-of-state interest. Do folks from elsewhere think South Dakota is worth more than many locals do?
I don't know if the Rosebud Tribe will be able to exempt this land from property taxes. But if they do, the county still comes out ahead. The county owned this 40 acres, but didn't know it. There was no taxpaying owner before this sale. The county has never collected taxes on this Bermuda Square. So just this sale is an automatic $140K bonus for the county and school district (Hill City, I'm guessing).
Hill Arious.